A routing strategy for vehicular ad hoc networks in city environments

Routing of data in a vehicular ad hoc network is a challenging task due to the high dynamics of such a network. Recently, it was shown for the case of highway traffic that position-based routing approaches can very well deal with the high mobility of network nodes. However baseline position-based routing has difficulties to handle two-dimensional scenarios with obstacles (buildings) and voids as it is the case for city scenarios. In this paper we analyze a position-based routing approach that makes use of the navigational systems of vehicles. By means of simulation we compare this approach with non-position-based ad hoc routing strategies (Dynamic Source Routing and Ad-Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing). The simulation makes use of highly realistic vehicle movement patterns derived from DaimlerChrysler's Videlio traffic simulator While DSR's performance is limited due to problems with scalability, and handling mobility, both AODV and the position-based approach show good performances with the position-based approach outperforming AODV.